Texas tycoon sentenced in oil-for-food scandal

On November 27, 2007, Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt, Jr. was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay $11 million in restitution for his role in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. Wyatt was originally arrested in October 2005 by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Michael Garcia. In October 2007, Wyatt pleaded guilty to paying millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to members of Saddam Hussein's regime in order to secure Iraqi oil contracts from 2000 to 2003. The UN oil-for-food program lifted sanctions against Iraq in order to allow the country to sell a limited amount of oil to pay for food and medicine. According to the US Senate, the arrangement earned around $17.3 billion for the Hussein regime.